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FTF Fariytale

Once upon a time there were people that cached because they loved it. There were people that tromped thru the woods for hours with old gps units and paper logs. They could cache all day and come home and log their finds . They could cache all week on vacation and a come home and log their finds. They did not have smartphones, and high tech gps units. They could chase a new cache and be in awe of whether someone had beaten them there when they arrived. They still enjoyed the hunt. Those were the days. There are still people that cache with those old units and carry paper today. WHAT?!! YOU SAY?? There are cachers that don't remember those days. Once upon a time no one expected you to stand out in the woods beside the cache and log online a ftf so they would not have to continue to travel and hunt for it. After all, what is the challenge if the ftf is gone? Once upon a time you did not get a condescending note if you did not stand in the rain, snow, hail ruining your new technology phone if you have one, and the battery isn't dead, to make sure there was immediate notification of your find. I cached with a student last week that did not have that new technology. We are all on one side or the other of this equation. How nice it would be if people with all the high tech equiptment would lighten up with the remarks to the people that don't log enroute and just enjoy the suspense of opening the logbook. Some people have cached this way for years. They all logged happily ever after. THE END. The wicked witch.

I've made comment in my log recently about that very thing. Wouldn't have said a word but the person who got the FTF is someone I've known since before we started caching so I claim the right to pick on them. Other caches we've gone after in hopes of bagging the FTF we've been STF or further down the line and really didn't care, we found the cache and that was really all that mattered. I like to see people log their FTFs as soon as they can (we've even taken advantage of "Free WIFI" at McDonald's to log just the FTF log before) but an instant log has never been something that gets me excited. I just don't like to see FTFs not logged for days. On the flip side of that coin, as a cache owner especially, I really don't care too much for "FTF edit later" either. I've seen that as the log that never got editted (although not on one of my caches) or, should I say, it hadn't been editted when I saw the logs. We all have our own caching styles and as long as we're having fun, I say "Cache ON!"

More fractured fairy tales....

Of course, back in the day FTF's were not really much of an issue anyway. As stated it could be hours, days of even weeks before a cache got logged. And sometime no one else even whet after the particular cache if it was in a remote area. I am the first to admit that I too like running for them, and I often will log from my smartphone. Then what always seems to happen is no one else finds that cache right away. I guess I will stop logging from the field. Well maybe.....

The saddest part I get out of all this is when cache finders can not get enough enjoyment out of a cache to find it worthy of visiting in they are not FTF. It's no doubt some cache placements promote that kind of feeling, but to expect everyone to log caches instantly is foolish. Caching was not designed to be a race.

Lee and I have actually FTF'd more caches this year than we ever have. We've gotten 8 so far, 4 of them in one day. We went after them because we wanted to do them, not because we wanted FTF. Most of them were not logged for at least 5 hours after finding them. While we had fun doing those, we actually got a lot more satisfaction when we found a cache last year that had not been hunted for in 5 years. Maine has over 300 caches which have not been found in over a year, as well as about 20 caches that were placed over a month ago available for FTF, 12 or so of which were placed over four months ago. If a person is going to get so stressed over someone not logging an FTF from the field, perhaps they should concentrate on caches others are less likely to be running for.

Another idea if you feel the need to make it a competition is to get together with those you want to compete with, set your ground rules including logging from the site and have at it. Race against those playing your game, and disregard other cache finders. So it's not necessarily who is FTF, but who is first out of your defined group.

Yes, we each have our own caching styles. My opinions are just that, my opinions. I was hoping to just put a seed in everyones mind that some people just cannot log in the field. I also think that smart phones may be the reason that there as so many logs that just say TFTC. Comments have been make previously on how that is not a sufficient log by some folks. I personally find my phone not user friendly and wojuld not do much elaborating if I logged that way each time. Kudos to those of you that are proficient at that. My logs sometimes tend to have more blah blah than the owner really probably needs to know. To each their own style. It would be a boring life if we were all clones. Thanks for your reflections on this.

yeah, hilarious...it is not that I expect instant logging, it is just that I might not go right then if I thought the cache had been found hours ago. That doesn't mean I won't ever go, but just not right then. Anytime I go for an FTF, I realize that it is a "risk" that someone else has been there moments before, and that is part of the fun. How much fun is it to run if you are not being chased ; ) But if someone has found it and has the ability to log in a reasonable amount of time, why not log it? More people do have access to technology and have the ability to log relatively quickly. It is just a game, but be reasonable - if you can log, do. (And by the way, thanks to those who have helped me with maintenance over the years...I really appreciate a replaced log, or a fixed film canister or other container....I'm planning a big maintenance run soon, but it is nice when others can help along the way...)

I agree it's usually best to log in a reasonable amount of time, but at the same time If I'm going for an FTF and going to be second to find, I'd much rather find out at the cache site, so if someone held off logging a few hours I would not be upset. I dislike it a lot more when people do not log their DNFs, on my cache or anyone else's. There are a bazillion logs on caches which say "third time's a charm" or "couldn't find this last week" that have no prior logs.